Does WD take care of R/3 conversion exits?

[Former Member]

Does WD take care of R/3 conversion exits or does it expect us to code for it in Java e.g. ALPHA conversion exit - customer number in R/3 is 10 characters long so customer number 123 is internally represented(in the DB) as 0000000123.

Currently on my application, if I do not put in the leading zero's on the screen field, the RFC does not work.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

this is not really a WD issue. The "receiving" system, in this case an ABAP system, has to take care converting the parameters from external to internal representation if necessary. So it's actually the task of the RFC (and a basic design principle of a BAPI, exactly for that reason).

Hope that helps.

Regards

Stefan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your response.

The reason I ask this is that standard R/3 BAPI's (like BAPI_CUSTOMER_GETDETAIL2) or RFC's (like RFC_CUSTOMER_GET) do not do any conversion exits on input parameters. I am looking at a 4.6c system - have BAPI's/RFC's in higher versions fixed this?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

at least the BAPI you mentioned should do that. Have a look at the development-documentation in the BAPI-explorer, one defined step beside authorization checks and others is the proper conversion from ext->int for parameters and structures.

If the BAPI you are using misses this step, it's actually not a "good" BAPI and bad luck It's no mandatory step for RFCs since it's not necessary if the system calling the RFC is an ABAP system.

Regards

Stefan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

That makes sense!

BTW I noticed that inputfields on the a WD view that are a bound to a model context automatically take care of the conversion exit. A WD application where I have a document number(type com.....model.types.Vbeln_Vl) on the screen does not need the leading zero's. The WD application is taking care of it. Another application where I have a customer number (type string) which exists only in the view's context, requires that I put in leading zero's.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

AFAIK, the WD framework simulates the mostly common CONVERSION_EXIT_ALPHA_INPUT/OUTPUT on Adaptive RFC model attributes, if the corresponding ABAP datatype is using it. But there are some very sophisticated exits in ABAP systems, which cannot be simulated.

BTW, did you succeed in the meantime with the PDF transfer from ABAP to WD(IFrame)?

Regards

Stefan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I did succeed. Thanks to you and others on SDN.

What I have now working does this:

1) R/3 RFC returns a TLINE type table

2) WD application converts the TLINE structure to byte[] - this one using the code Sam Mathew suggested.

3) byte[] is bound to a FileDownload UI Element

This is my first attempt and I hope to try other solutions that were posted. I could not get the solution using FM sx_object_convert_otf_pdf working - I still get a corrupted file - maybe I am missing something - anyways I will keep trying!

Thanks once again for your help - it is very appreciated! Keep up the good work!

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Stefan,

I tested out an example to see if Web Dynpro performs conversion exits . I tried out with the function module CATS_SEARCH_WBS here the WBS element shows up in SAP gui in a converted format, while in Web Dynpro it is in the same internal format. I also noticed the interface IBackendConversionRule which can be derived through the object of ISimpleTypeModifiable ,some of the methods convertFromBackendToFrontendValue(Object o) and

convertFromFrontendToBackendValue(Object o) looks promising but currently throws out NullPointerException.

Any ideas on these APIs

Regards

Pran

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Pran,

i guess, conversion exits might be more or fully supported in future releases. Looking at the NW 04 documentation it's stated that:

"Finally, the dictionary helps in converting values from internal to external representation. <b>Currently</b>, both the conversion of currency values and the well-known Alpha-Conversion, heavily used in R/3 applications, are supported."

Since it's possible to "ask" the ABAP system for conversion exits via ABAP domain metadata (there are also more interesting things like documentations, help values etc.) this would be possible. Let's wait and see..

Best regards

Stefan